After having recorded two albums without him, St. Nicholas's Sparrow bandmates, (vocalist/guitarist
John Kay, drummer
Jerry Edmonton and organist
Goldy McJohn) came to see him perform with T.I.M.E. at the
Whisky a Go Go on the
Sunset Strip and asked him to leave T.I.M.E. to rejoin them as
Steppenwolf. "1967, John Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Michael Monarch and Goldie McJohn formed a musical band called 'Steppenwolf.' In 1968, Nicholas Kassbaum, who is professionally known as 'Nick St. Nicholas,' joined Steppenwolf as a bass player. That year, the band members entered into a
partnership agreement whereby the members became co-equal partners and owners in Steppenwolf, and agreed to share equally the band's expenses and income. Also in 1968, the band members signed a recording agreement with
Dunhill Records both as partners and as Steppenwolf band members. From late 1968 until late April 1970, Steppenwolf, with Kassbaum as its bass player, toured the world in concerts and recorded Steppenwolf 's well-received music. Kassbaum appeared prominently on Steppenwolf record album covers and authored Steppenwolf compositions. In 1970, John Kay, who had asserted control over Steppenwolf, excluded Kassbaum from the band." –
9th Circuit St. Nicholas has several Gold and Platinum records to his credit playing and contributing on four
Steppenwolf albums:
At Your Birthday Party,
Early Steppenwolf,
Monster, and
Steppenwolf Live. He performed on many television shows as a member of Steppenwolf, including
The Ed Sullivan Show, August 17, 1969, where the band performed a medley of "
Born to Be Wild" / "
Magic Carpet Ride" and a complete version of "It's Never Too Late",
The Smothers Brothers,
American Bandstand,
Playboy After Dark,
Beat Club,
Della,
Upbeat, and
The Steve Allen Show, as well as
VH1's
Behind the Music. St. Nicholas was squeezed out of Steppenwolf in a power play by Kay in 1971.
Grammy Awards board member and former manager of T.I.M.E. Jeff Greenberg came to see St. Nicholas to inform him that Steppenwolf was at a rehearsal at SIR Studios with a new bassist,
George Biondo. More than twenty years of still-unresolved litigation followed. Following St. Nicholas's ouster from Steppenwolf, he replaced
Dickie Peterson in
Blue Cheer alongside
Ruben De Fuentes on guitar and Terry Rae on drums. The band both toured and recorded during this time, but the songs were not released until ''Live & Unreleased '68/'74'' was released in 1996. After Kay and Edmonton's version of Steppenwolf disbanded in 1976, St. Nicholas reformed the group with McJohn and guitarist
Kent Henry, who had replaced Larry Byrom in the group and recorded the guitar tracks on the
For Ladies Only album in 1971. There were several other versions of this band touring at the same time for which St. Nicholas was not responsible. During this time, St. Nicholas's Steppenwolf included drummers such as
Steve Riley and
Frankie Banali. St. Nicholas stopped touring with Steppenwolf in 1980 due to legal actions by Kay. ==Post-Steppenwolf==